News Update

With fewer guests and the much appreciated practical help of Emily in the house, who is with us for about another ten weeks, Len has been able to spend a few hours on two days helping our son Dan construct new cupboards and book shelves in the manse the family are moving into for their new pastoral responsibilities. After ten years of ministry with the Swiss Reformed Church in Muhen, Canton Aagau, Dan and Martina were unanimously accepted by the Church in Riehen-Dorf, Basel as a husband and wife partnership to fill the vacancy of their retiring pastor. The picture shows the church with the large manse on the right. The whole family are excited about the move but it will of course involve a change of school for the three older children, Sophia, David and Benedict. The Riehen Church has a long-standing evangelical tradition and the manse itself has a claim to fame being the childhood home of Leonhard Euler an important Swiss Mathematician, born 17o7.
www.gap-system.org/~history/Biographies/Euler.html. Tim has this week been in England to celebrate his father's 80th birthday but since his return has also spent a day assisting in the move. We wish Dan & Martina much blessing in their ministry in Riehen, Basel.

News update

Tom and Esther return to school and kindergarten this week. Tom beginning his second school year and Esther continuing at the village kindergarten. After six weeks of speaking essentially English this sudden re-immersion into their respective German-speaking environments can be quite traumatic. We have been praying for them. Tom also begins another session of football training with other youngsters in the village, this term on Thursday evenings. They both have local friends who they often play with outside of school hours and Deb encourages this as much as possible.
Emily who is helping us in the house for four months is a great favourite with the two children at the moment and this should be particularly helpful when Deb re-commences her English-teaching afternoon sessions shortly.
We have been pleased to have a guest from Bendigo in Australia this past weekend and others from the UK are joining her on Tuesday. We have shared our lives with more people than ever before these summer months and although the house has no 'empty' days before the beginning of November these next few weeks look like being a little less hectic as far as guests are concerned.
We pray that the following comment in our guest book may have been true for many of those who have been with us - 'Thank you for encouraging us through your life' - after all we see this as one of the more important reasons for the existence of Haus Barnabas.

News Update

A retreat week in Haus Barnabas entitled 'Encountering God' and led by Tracy Williamson and Marilyn Baker culminated in a public concert by Marilyn in which she sang her own songs and gave personal testimony, as a physically blind person, to God's love and grace in her life. This is now the fourth such concert Marilyn has led in Haus Barnabas over the past five years and her name is becoming known locally here. It was tremendously encouraging to us this past Sunday evening to see nine Utzenfeld villagers walking in groups of two and three to the concert, most of whom had never been to any 'spiritual' event in Haus Barnabas before. We feel the café has helped people to feel easier about coming to us, as four of those who came had been in the café that afternoon and received personal invitations to the concert.
A few weeks ago Marilyn had fallen off the platform on to the rail at Tonbridge station when her guide dog had underestimated the the amount of space she had needed to get around a group of workmen. She testified of God's providential protection in enabling the oncoming train to be stopped just in time and that she had no broken bones. A visit to the warm thermal baths whilst with us together with prayer had helped to relieve the pain and stiffness which were hindering her sleep pattern and we praise the Lord that she and ourselves and each of the group of ten who took part in the week had found blessing from it.